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Tom Reed,who previously covered the Blue Jackets for The Dispatch, is back after a five-year absence while working for the newspaper in that city up north: Cleveland. Follow him on Twitter at @treed1919

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Game 34: Out Of Gas

Posted Dec 16, 2013
by Shawn Mitchell

The Blue Jackets, to borrow from Gump, are like a box of chocolates. You never know what you’re going to get. Tonight, you got a couple that were sweet and delicious, and a couple more that had the cherries in them – but they were busted, and the goo was running out – and a couple more that were the kind you bite once and spit out.

It was a mixed bag in the Nationwide Arena. The Jackets lost two players to injury in the first period, and another (temporarily) in the second. They got (insert verb here) on a couple of (choose between “questionable,” “bad” or “horrible”) calls by the officials. On top of all that, they had a couple of passengers on board, and they took a couple of stupid penalties, and they didn’t play the Pizza Song.

The result was a 3-2 loss at the hands of the Winnipeg Jets. And announced crowd of 11,448 took it in. The fans that were on hand were a hearty bunch. They took full note of the poor calls and let referee Tim Peel have it. They tried to inject energy into a tired team in the third period. They kept it close.

Brandon Dubinsky fairly summed up the post-game atmosphere in the Jackets’ locker room.

“It wasn’t good enough as a team – but I’ve got to play better than that,” Dubinsky said. “That wasn’t close to my best. I’m pretty upset with myself – not the team. It has been a tough stretch, but some guys played well. Some guys dropped the mitts and were engaged. I’ve got to be better, all the way through.”

The first period ended in a 0-0 draw. Defenseman Dalton Prout (upper body) left after one shift and center Derek MacKenzie (lower body) went out later in the period. There were no further descriptions of the injuries. Matt Calvert fought Jacob Trouba and Nick Foligno fought Adam Pardy. Both fights were touched off when a Jet lost an edge, went down and came up swinging. Calvert and Foligno carried themselves well in the aftermaths.

Late in the first period, Cam Atkinson scored by the goal was waved off. Peel ruled that Jets goaltender Al Montoya had been impeded by Calvert on the play. Here’s how it went down:

Atkinson went to the net, was taken down to the ice and, from the side of the net, made a blind swipe and knocked the puck through Montoya’s legs. Calvert was crashing the net for a rebound, and being pushed, and caught a piece of Montoya. Replays showed that Calvert made contact after the puck was driven through Montoya’s legs.

“I didn’t see goaltender interference on the play, but that was the call,” Jackets coach Todd Richards said. “I was disappointed with the call, but it was one play of many, many in the game.”

Early in the second period, Fedor Tyutin got caught cross-footed at the blue line and had to turn and chase down James Wright on a breakaway. Tyutin was called for hooking on the play, which finished with Wright following through on a shot and hammering a high stick into Tyutin’s face. Tyutin’s nose gushed, and he spent the remainder of the middle period in the locker room, getting repairs.

“(Peel) said it was a follow-through” that caught Tyutin, Richards said.

Part of Rule 60.1: “Players must be in control and responsible for their stick. However, a player is permitted accidental contact on an opponent if the act is committed as a normal windup or follow through of a shooting motion . . .”

Such was the referees ruling.

Mark Scheifele, the No. 7 overall pick in the 2011 draft, got the Jets on the board with a goal off a nice cross-slot feed from Evander Kane at 13:59 of the second period. The Jets might have been offside on the play. From one replay angle, it sure looked as if they were. But the linesman was right there and made no call. So it goes.

In the final accounting, what put the game just out of the reach for the Jackets was a pair of penalties. R.J. Umberger was called for high sticking at 14:44 of the second. Atkinson was called for hooking 15:53 of the second. At this point, Tyutin was getting stitched and the Jackets were down to four defensemen. Killing penalties was an inordinately burdensome.

Atkinson took a double-minor for high sticking at 39 seconds of the third period. Bryan Little scored on the ensuing power play to give the Jets a 2-0 lead.

The Jackets cut into the lead. Umberger scored on a wraparound, assist to Calvert and Ryan Johansen, at 8:48 of the third. That made it 2-1 and got the crowd going. The Jackets quickly pressed for another goal, but their aggression backfired.

David Savard pinched deep, turned the puck over and fell down – and the Jets went the other way three-on-one. Kane had the puck, held it and scored on a wicked wrist shot he ripped into the far top corner. Jackets third-string goaltender Mike McKenna (29 saves) did everything right and still he no chance.

“It was good to see the team respond, down 2-0 – but we can’t keep getting down like that,” Richards said. “I think the effort was there, the fight was there. I thought we were engaged. We just weren’t able to generate a lot. Injuries played a part in it. We came up one play short tonight.”

Tyutin came off the canvas to cut the Jets’ lead to 3-2 on a put-back with fewer than nine minutes remaining. Mark Letestu and Nick Foligno assisted. With their fans behind them, the Jackets again pushed for the equalizer, but their legs turned rubbery, and the Jets were able to smother.

Side dishes

--The Jackets are off on Tuesday. They will split into groups in the afternoon to do good works at the Furniture Bank of Central Ohio, the Mid-Ohio Foodbank and St. Stephen’s Community House. Goaltender Curtis McElhinney, however, will spend at least part of his day on the ice, he said. He hopes to return later this week against the Flyers, either on Thursday (in Philly) or Saturday (in Nationwide).

--Heavy minutes tonight for lots of Jackets, who played with only four defensemen for most of the second period. David Savard played a career-high 25:28. Also: Jack Johnson 27:58, Nikita Nikitin 21:02, Ryan Murray 23:11. Center Ryan Johansen hit 20:00, the seventh time he’s hit the 20-minute mark this season. He played 20 minutes or more only once in his first two seasons.

--Kane had missed the previous six games because of a lower-body injury and went down in agony after he was struck in the left heel by a Savard slap shot in the second period. He was helped off the ice and to the dressing room but returned to score the what proved to be the winner in the third.

--Johansen extended his career-long point streak to nine games. He had the secondary assist on Umberger’s goal and has 4-7-11 in his past nine.

--The Jackets had won the previous six meetings in the series. The Jets/Thrashers had not beaten the Jackets since Atlanta won 5-2 on Dec. 9, 2005.

-- Forward Jack Skille, recalled to Columbus from Springfield on Sunday after being sent down on Saturday, was reassigned to Springfield before the game.

--Richards said after the game that he had no update on the status or extent of the injuries to MacKenzie or Prout, although MacKenzie did not aggravate the back injury that kept him out of five games late last month. His lower-body injury is not believed to be serious.

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